A total of 72 episodes of The Mike Wallace Interview were broadcast by ABC between 1957 and 1958. The series premiered on April 28th, 1957 and was sponsored by Phillip Morris through the April 18th, 1958 episode. The Fund for the Republic then sponsored a 13-week set of interviews entitled “Liberty and Freedom” (one of which was never broadcast) followed by an additional six episodes. The final broadcast took place on September 14th, 1958.
My article about The Mike Wallace Interview can be found here.
The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin has 66 of the 72 episodes of The Mike Wallace Interview. Five are only available as audio recordings while the rest are kinescopes that have been digitized and made available for viewing online. The Ransom Center also has a transcript of the Ben Hecht interview (broadcast February 25th, 1958) but no audio or video. One of the episodes the Ransom Center does not have a copy of is the controversial Mickey Cohen broadcast from May 19th, 1957.
According to Steve Winston, Associate Curator of Film at the Ransom Center, “There are reports that the BBC still has some excerpts though we have not been able to locate the specific department that might hold them. Other than that, the interview appears to be lost.” Audio of the Cohen episode is part of Archival Television Audio, Inc. collection.
Also missing from the Ransom Center’s collection are the two retractions read by ABC’s Oliver Treyz on May 27th and December 14th. According to Winston, “We have no idea why the footage was not included in the kinescope. We don’t know if they were removed later, or if they were never recorded in the first place.” Archival Television Audio, Inc. has the May 27th retraction read by Treyz.
The UCLA Film & Television Archive has two episodes of the series: the Cyrus Eaton interview that is audio only at the Ransom Center and the Ben Hecht interview that the Ransom Center only has a transcript for. Both the Museum of Broadcasting and The Paley Center for Media have several episodes that are also part of the Ransom Center’s collection.
(According to a December 1957 article in The Los Angeles Times, a filmed “stand-by interview” with Evelyn Rudie was always ready to be used in the event a guest didn’t show up. It is not included in the episode count and its current whereabouts are unknown.)
Abbreviations:
ATA – Archival Television Audio, Inc.
MOB – The Museum of Broadcasting
Paley – The Paley Center for Media
Ransom – The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas
UCLA – The UCLA Film & Television Archive
# | Episode Title | Airdate | Status |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Gloria Swanson | 04/28/1957 | Ransom |
2 | Eldon L. Edwards | 05/05/1957 | Ransom |
3 | Philip Wylie | 05/12/1957 | Ransom |
4 | Mickey Cohen* | 05/19/1957 | ATA |
5 | Senator Wayne Morse | 05/26/1957 | Ransom |
6 | Earl Browder | 06/02/1957 | Ransom |
7 | Ralph Lapp | 06/09/1957 | Ransom |
8 | Mary Margaret McBride | 06/16/1957 | Ransom |
9 | David Hawkins | 06/23/1957 | Ransom |
10 | Charles “Commando” Kelly | 06/30/1957 | Ransom |
11 | Steve Allen | 07/07/1957 | Ransom/Paley/MOB |
12 | Diana Barrymore | 07/14/1957 | Ransom |
13 | Glenn H. McCarthy | 07/21/1957 | Ransom |
14 | Senator James O. Eastland | 07/28/1957 | Ransom/Paley |
15 | Bob Feller | 08/04/1957 | Ransom |
16 | Dagmar | 08/11/1957 | Ransom/MOB |
17 | Harry Bridges | 08/18/1957 | |
18 | Fred Otash | 08/25/1957 | Ransom |
19 | Frank Lloyd Wright | 09/01/1957 | Ransom/Paley |
20 | Eddie Arcaro | 09/08/1957 | Ransom |
21 | George Jessel | 09/14/1957 | Ransom |
22 | Governor Orval E. Faubus | 09/15/1957 | Ransom/MOB |
23 | Margaret Sanger | 09/21/1957 | Ransom |
24 | Frank Lloyd Wright | 09/28/1957 | Ransom/Paley |
25 | Lilli St. Cyr | 10/05/1957 | Ransom |
26 | Retired General George C. Kenny | 10/12/1957 | Ransom |
27 | Malcolm Muggeridge | 10/19/1957 | Ransom |
28 | Carmen Basilio | 10/26/1957 | Ransom |
29 | Kirk Douglas | 11/02/1957 | Ransom |
30 | Diana Dors | 11/09/1957 | Ransom |
31 | Elsa Maxwell | 11/16/1957 | Ransom |
32 | Eleanor Roosevelt | 11/23/1957 | Ransom |
33 | Bennett Cerf | 11/30/1957 | Ransom |
34 | Drew Pearson | 12/07/1957 | Ransom/MOB |
35 | Edward Bennett Williams | 12/14/1957 | Ransom |
36 | Leonard Ross | 12/21/1957 | Ransom |
37 | Major Alexander P. de Seversky | 12/28/1957 | Ransom |
38 | Jean Seberg | 01/04/1958 | Ransom |
39 | Nobel Prize Winners: Lester B. Pearson, Others | 01/11/1958 | Ransom |
40 | John Gates | 01/18/1958 | Ransom |
41 | Walter Reuther | 01/25/1958 | Ransom |
42 | Fulton Lewis, Jr | 02/01/1958 | Ransom |
43 | Pearl S. Buck | 02/08/1958 | Ransom |
44 | Ben Hecht** | 02/15/1958 | UCLA |
45 | Rudy Vallee | 02/22/1958 | Ransom |
46 | Tennessee Williams | 03/01/1958 | ATA |
47 | Major Donald Keyhoe | 03/08/1958 | Ransom |
48 | Oscar Hammerstein II | 03/15/1958 | Ransom |
49 | Anthony Perkins | 03/22/1958 | Ransom |
50 | Peter Ustinov | 03/29/1958 | Ransom |
51 | Lillian Roth | 04/05/1958 | Ransom |
52 | Ambassador Abba Eban | 04/12/1959 | Ransom |
53 | Salvador Dali | 04/19/1959 | Ransom |
54 | Rev. Reinhold Niebuhr | 04/27/1958 | Ransom |
55 | Cyrus Eaton*** | 05/04/1958 | Ransom/UCLA |
56 | Justice William O. Douglas | 05/11/1958 | Ransom |
57 | Aldous Huxley | 05/18/1958 | Ransom |
58 | Erich Fromm | 05/25/1958 | Ransom |
59 | Adlai E. Stevenson*** | 06/01/1958 | Ransom |
60 | Sylvester (Pat) Weaver*** | 06/08/1958 | Ransom |
61 | Henry Cabot Lodge | UNAIRED | |
62 | Monsignor Francis Lally*** | 06/22/1958 | Ransom |
63 | Harry Ashmore | 06/29/1958 | Ransom |
64 | Charles Percy | 07/06/1958 | Ransom |
65 | Henry Kissinger | 07/13/1958 | Ransom |
66 | Dr. Robert Hutchins*** | 07/20/1958 | Ransom |
67 | Maj. Alexander P. de Seversky | 08/03/1958 | |
68 | Dr. Henry M. Wriston | 08/17/1958 | Ransom |
69 | Edward A. Weeks, Jr | 08/24/1958 | Ransom |
70 | James McBride Dabbs | 08/31/1958 | Ransom |
71 | Mortimer Adler | 09/07/1958 | Ransom |
72 | Arthur Larson | 09/14/1958 | Ransom |
*Archival Television Audio, Inc. has an audio recording of this episode.
**The Harry Ransom Center has a transcript for this episode.
**The Harry Ransom Center has audio recordings of these episodes.
NOTE: From March 1959 to September 1961, Mike Wallace hosted an unrelated interview series called The Mike Wallace Interview (also known as Mike Wallace Interviews) on independent station WNTA-TV in New York City.
References:
Smith, Cecil. “Stars Dodge the Mike Wallace Interview to Avoid Being Tagged ‘It’ in Public.” Los Angeles Times. 1 Dec. 1957: G3
Revised August 29th, 2019
For the record does the Tennessee Williams March 1, 1958 Mike Wallace Interview exist anywhere known as video or audio or transcript? Thanks
Phil Gries
Archival Television Audio
UPDATE:
I have unearthed a rare MIKE WALLACE INTERVIEW. It is the half hour unaccounted interview Mike conducted with Tennessee Williams on ABC TV March 1, 1957. The Audio Only air check is complete and the sound is excellent. I have added this rare find to the Archival Television Audio, Inc. archive (www.atvaudio.com), preserving “lost” television (1946-1982).
That’s great news, Phil. I’ve updated the status guide. Sorry I didn’t see your earlier question about the Tennessee Williams episode.